Artoria: I Want to Play the Queen!

As she put a piece of steak into her mouth, Azu sighed helplessly.

Shinji was unaware that at that very moment, a young girl was sighing over his interpretation of the Maid outfit; otherwise, he would have burst out laughing.

Maid outfit are nothing compared to what he knows about Miko outfit, policewoman play, kemonomimi (animal-eared girls), athletic swimsuits, and so on.

When it comes to the XP system, Shinji has never been an expert; rather, as Teacher Xu famously said, "I want it all!"

However, rather than knowing her idol's preferences on the XP system, Azu was more interested in Shinji's research achievements in Magecraft.

As the saying goes, "Never forget our original aspiration and keep our mission firmly in mind, and we will achieve our goal."

Azu will always remember why she became a fan of Shinji Matou, and only Shinji Matou is constantly improving in his research on Magecraft, is worthy of being her idol.

After today's episode of <Magical Girl Prisma Illya> aired, Azu and her friends saw an advertisement for <Fate/kaleid liner Prisma Illya> merchandise.

The product featured in the advertisement is the Aoko True Magic Ruby the PROPLICA series that Aoko has been longing for.

Based on the advertisement's introduction and demonstration, Azu understood how to play with the toy and its highlights, which also raised some questions.

The advertisement emphasizes the gameplay feature: the top of this staff can be transformed at will, turning into a sword blade, a cannon barrel, or something similar.

In Azu's opinion, the staff's transformation function seemed impressive, but it was actually nothing special.

With her discerning eye as the heir of the Kuzunoha family, she naturally recognized that the staff was made of Magecraft developed by Shinji Matou.

This Magecraft Mystic Code technique, derived from the El-Melloi Family's Moon Cell Jelly Mystic Code, has been greatly enhanced in terms of practicality after being improved by Shinji Matou.

Although the change in material greatly reduced the combat capabilities of this Mystic Code, which Shinji Matou named "Slime".

However, its superior versatility and ease of control by Magecraft make it more cost-effective.

Even Azu herself uses slimes as her assistants when conducting Magecraft research.

Applying slime to toys seems incredible to ordinary people, but Magecraft like Azu don't find it remarkable at all.

At most, one might be amazed at how Shinji Matou managed to control the magic that manipulates slimes.

What truly puzzled Azu was that Aoko mentioned the revolutionary feat of Magecraft chanting before the series even started.

Throughout the entire advertisement, Azu saw almost nothing related to Magecraft chanting, except for the voice-controlled gameplay of the toy wand.

According to the advertisement, after the player has the wand record their voice as required, the toy will process it using technology, and then the wand can automatically generate and play various transformation lines in the player's voice.

Although the advertisement claimed to use the latest computer sound processing technology, Azu knew very well that it was definitely a Magecraft trick.

She's no longer the tech novice she was a few years ago, completely clueless about modern society.

With current technology, it is possible to process and generate language from audio materials, but the result is merely simple, absurd video material.

The electronic voice, pronounced with deliberate, staccato syllables, is very distinctive and can never achieve the naturalness shown in the advertisements.

However, knowing this is Shinji Matou use this technology to achieve a revolution in Magecraft chanting techniques?

Even after racking her brains, Azu still couldn't figure it out.

"Should we ask him directly?"

As if tickled by a kitten, Azu took out her phone, opened the messaging app, and glanced at it.

Taking advantage of her status as the leader of Shinji Matou's fan club, Azu left a message for Shinji, inquiring about the specific core techniques of that sound processing technology.

Azu believed that as long as she understood how the technique worked, she would be able to guess what Shinji Matou wanted to do, given her intelligence.

Unfortunately, since sending the message, Shinji Matou has not replied.

Based on Azu's understanding of that Magecraft Director, he was probably held back by work.

"Hmm... I finally got back to China, where did you go again?"

◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆◇◆

What did Shinji go about?

He went to scout locations.

Upon returning from Italy, he handed over the publicity and distribution work for <Ultraseven X> to Chloe — Jidai Group. was an absolute veteran in distributing award-winning films like this—while he himself took a few crew members from <The Kara no Kyoukai> to Kanabuchi City.

Over the following week, Shinji, guided by locals, carefully explored the setting of the story of "Kara no Kyoukai" and focused on learning about the specific circumstances of the city.

Shinji did not find the landmark building, Ogawa Apartment, in Kanabuchi City, nor did he find a girl named Kirie Fujou in the local hospital, nor did he encounter the monk who had gone mad from his obsession with the Root.

Similarly, since Touko didn't come to this city, there was naturally no agency the Hollow Shrine.

The Asagami family continued to develop in this city, but the Asagami Family declined earlier than in the timeline of <Kara no Kyoukai>, so it was not swallowed up by its own branch family, thus preserving the last dignity of a fallen noble family.

Naturally, the head of the Asagami family did not adopt the girl named Fujino.

Shinji spoke with the head of the family and informed him that he would be using the surnames [Asagami] and [Asagami] in the movie.

This man, who, though not involved in Magecraft world, yearned for it, immediately declared, "It would be my greatest honor to be a dog of the Matou Family."

Pooh!

It should be, "It is the greatest honor for the Asagami family to be able to become material for Director Matou."

Yes, that's right, that's exactly it.

After leaving the Asagami residence, Shinji and several staff members who accompanied him exchanged opinions on set design and on-location filming.

It was ultimately decided that the Location Shoot and long shots in the film would be shot here, while the interior scenes and some close-up shots would be filmed in a studio in Fuyuki City.

Whether it can save on filming costs is secondary; the main reason is that Fuyuki City has more complete equipment and personnel, which can save a lot of trouble in preparation.

Upon returning to Fuyuki City, the production team held its first large-scale auditions, which were temporarily handled by Touko and Medea. Shinji would only participate in the secondary auditions for a few main roles.

With the main characters already decided, the remaining characters aren't that important, Shinji didn't bother focusing his energy on them.

There is still a lot of work to be done during the film's preparation, and there are many more things that he needs to personally oversee, such as the characters and props.

These are not just movie props; because there are plans for commercial development, Shinji also needs to consider the possibility of commercializing these props and launching them into the market in the future.

Therefore, even if Shinji doesn't first determine how to sell toys like the Ultraman production team did, and then design projects based on those toys, he still needs to consider in advance how to sell the props from the movie as merchandise.

First, there's Ryougi Shiki's dagger. Shirou and Red A presented several concept sketches and prototypes, but Shinji rejected them all.

"Red A, you need to know, this is where we'll be selling toys."

Standing in the conference room, Shinji pointed to the Projection image and said to Red A.

"These versions are different, but they're all too ordinary. I need a highly distinctive dagger, not just any ordinary killing tool."

"A serious killer wouldn't make their weapons fancy, would they?"

Red A frowned and muttered a complaint.

However, he knew what Shinji was thinking, so while he was complaining, he still modified the prop design.

Shinji reiterated the design concept of Ryougi Shiki's weapon. "My ideal dagger is a product that combines understated elegance with flamboyance. You can think of it as a hybrid of Excalibur and Hassan's throwing dagger."

"Are there any knife samples left?"

Red A's eyebrows twitched twice, his expression as if he had eaten Engraved Insect.

Shinji knew this was a bit unreasonable, but he had no other choice.

There are very few things in the story of "Kara no Kyoukai" that can be used as a selling point; he could only think of a handful.

Ryougi Shiki's kimono is a good choice, but the clothes are too expensive, so few people buy them.

Kiritou Kaguya and Touko's glasses could be a good idea for a collaboration with an eyewear manufacturer, but glasses aren't exactly brand-name items, and besides, Mikiya and Touko aren't the main characters.

After much thought, the only weapon that Ryougi Shiki that would be truly marketable is her dagger.

Therefore, regardless of how the dagger is described in the original Kara no Kyoukai, in Shinji's version, it is definitely Ryougi Shiki's exclusive weapon.

With the film officially greenlit, Shinji fully immersed himself in work mode, a stark contrast to the relatively relaxed atmosphere he experienced while filming <Magical Girl Prisma Illya>.

The investment in <Kara no Kyoukai: Painful Remnants> was huge, and it was key to the success of the <Kara no Kyoukai> series.

Therefore, Shinji treated this film with the same seriousness and dedication he would have shown for Fate/Apocrypha.

As a Japanese supernatural film, it won't be easy for <Kara no Kyoukai> to become a super popular series like Fate; every step of the work must be done meticulously.

This is Shinji's consistent attitude; he's a professional when it comes to making movies, so he has to give it his all.

The production of FSN and FZ taught Shinji that the difference between watching a movie and making a film based on it is, if not astronomical, at least not much simpler than paddling across the Yangtze River in a bathtub.

Because of the busy preparations for "Kara no Kyoukai", Shinji temporarily put aside the post-production work of "FA" and handed it over to the editor to do a rough cut first.

Shinji himself began to personally review and examine the progress reports on the various pre-production preparations for the film "Kara no Kyoukai" that were placed on his desk.

As the Director in charge of the entire project, if Shinji probably wouldn't even have a definite time to start filming.

Although Shinji delegates the detailed work to his assistants, such as Touko and his Little Secretary, the final review of the project must be done by him personally; otherwise, he, as the Director, would be sidelined.

In addition to reviewing the pre-production work, Shinji also visited the film set in Fuyuki City, where a new soundstage had been set up to house the parking lot under the bridge where the final battle scene of the movie would take place.

According to Shinji's plan, this parking lot used for filming is approximately 80 meters long, 40 meters wide, and 15 meters high.

By parking lot standards, this space is a bit small, but it's enough for a film set.

In addition to setting up a parking lot, the film set also installed 12 large blowers and 4 water pumps to simulate typhoon weather during a major battle.

Even though the two women are fighting indoors, what kind of big-budget movie wouldn't end up destroying the fighting area?

Another target that will be heavily targeted in the final battle is the cars in the parking lot, which will definitely be the primary targets of the two women's sabotage.

However, since there might be car brands sponsoring the project in the future, Shinji wasn't in a hurry to have the props team make prop cars.

While Shinji was busy with the "Kara no Kyoukai" series, another film and television project related to him was also preparing to be approved.

After several exchanges, Waver finally relented and agreed to let Shinji produce a TV series starring him: The Case Files of Lord El-Melloi II.

To maintain the popularity of the Fate series, Shinji's current plan is to produce at least one movie and one TV series every year going forward.

This year's task is to deliver the TV series "Magical Girl Prisma Illya," next year's movie is "A. F. A. R.," and the TV series task is to deliver "Casebook."

Shinji, but considering that the characters from Fate/stay night had appeared too frequently in the past two years, Shinji felt it would be better to use Waver to give the audience a change of pace first.

Of course, Waver himself definitely wouldn't have time to come to the set to play himself, so Shinji still needs to find a male actor to play the Clock Tower's number one stomachache man.

However, to Shinji's surprise, Waver did not play the male lead, and the female lead he had chosen did not seem interested in participating in the drama.

"I didn't think the TV series was interesting, and my personality wasn't suited to that delicate girl. So I refused to audition."

Artoria Alter said to Shinji.

This was yet another internal appreciation event for Type-Moon Company, and the main reason Shinji took time out of his busy schedule to eat, drink, and watch the show with everyone was because of the two King of Knights in front of him.

Artoria Alter and Artoria both declined to play the lead role of Gray in The Case Files.

Chapter 310 Artoria: I Want to Play the Queen!

Shinji did not show any anger upon hearing Ms. Alter's refusal.

Because Alter was never his first choice. Compared to Alter, who only had a similar hair color to Gray, Shinji's first choice for this role had always been Artoria.

Shinji then picked up his glass (which contained soda water), lightly clinked it against Alter's glass, and nodded slightly.

"Since you, Alter, have no intention of participating, then I'll trouble you to focus on your clerical work."

Upon hearing Shinji's words, Ms. Alter, who was drinking, frowned.

Don't call me that.

Alter hates being called Alter by others; it makes her feel like she's an appendage of Artoria.

However, Shinji, who is always incredibly thick-skinned, was completely oblivious. Instead, he raised his eyebrows at Alter while holding his glass of soda water.

"Hmph~"

Alter let out a heavy snort through his nose, then quickly got up and left.

"Tsk tsk, still as short-tempered as ever. She really is just two sides of the same coin as you."

After the other person left, Shinji looked at Artoria Benya with a hint of mockery on his face.

"Master, do you know that it's wrong to toy with girls like this?"

Artoria shook her head slightly, her expression becoming very calm.

Shinji's slightly provocative words had no effect on her whatsoever.

"Master, your attempt to provoke me is too childish and doesn't interest me at all."

Artoria said, tearing open a bag of potato chips and eating them without any regard for her image.